I realize this thread is very VERY old, but I'm hoping someone can help. Does anyone have a "recipe" for making a pounce bag I can use when embossing? No matter how careful I am, I always end up with embossing powder in places I don't want it. Thumping the card, or using a tiny brush or toothpick (tedious!) to remove EP is marginally helpful. I've used dryer sheets with moderate success, but it's hard to get good coverage. I found a "recipe" in a stamping mag for making a pounce bag with equal parts talcum powder and baking soda. I could be wrong, but I think they meant cornstarch, not baking soda. I made a pounce bag using just talcum and it works pretty well, but does anyone have a surefire "recipe" for a pounce bag? Thanks so much!

I have had trouble with embossing powder too. I tried making my own, didn't work well. I bought one and I find I don't use it. I have come to the place with my cards that I don't want them perfect, I want them to look homemade (not homemade like my sister in law ones), you know what I mean well done but hand made! So if there is a few or dozen of flecks of embossing powder so be it!

Hi, Yankee. You hit the nail on the head. I'm finicky when making cards. I like straight, even edges, no smudges, everything aligned perfectly . . . and no stray bits of embossing powder. If I'm doing a collage where some stray EP ends up where it doesn't belong, and if the background of the collage is busy enough to camaflage it, I'm okay with that. But it drives me nuts when I discover spots of stray EP on an otherwise pristine picture.

Thus, my search for a "recipe" for an embossing bag. As I mentioned before, I made a bag out of a man's hanky, folded in quarters, then filled with talcum powder. Today I opened the bag and added an equal amount of cornstarch and then closed it with a rubber band. I'm headed off to my craft room and see how the talcum/cornstarch mixture works. If it does the job, I'll report back so that anyone else needing an embossing bag will know what goes inside. Anyone else with a better idea, please feel free to comment!

2. Avoid embossing with high contrast -- dark embossing on light paper and reverse which makes the stray specks stand out more.

3. I use clear embossing powder 90% of the time -- you can use pigment ink pads for color… this is the best way to keep stray bit of powder from showing.

4. Keep embossing powder dry by making sure the lid is tight -- humidity might be micro clumping your powder or making it stickier. Also keep the paper insert in the lid because this is the "gasket" which helps with the seal.

5. Experiment with the distance of your heat gun -- I've found the right distance blows away the stray powder sometimes.

6. If you don't use glossy paper and high contrast powder sometimes you can use a brand new x-acto blade point to gently pick off the stray embossed bits.

7. You can stop embossing to clean up powder that escapes the hold of the ink. Stopping and starting does not hurt the process, nor does remelting embossed areas. Do a test and see if you can tolerate this technique.

8. Tapping off embossing powder seems like a huge risk until you've tried it a few times -- test it out, you'll be surprised how much you can tap or flick the back of your paper.

9. Make sure the cat is out of the room when you are embossing -- stray cat fur is bad enough, but a cat paw or tail messes it up every time. Been there, done that.

Conversely, I sometimes do messy embossing to get a grungy look -- great with rust colors or mixes. I’ve seen some fabulous effects done by dragging a wet embossing ink pad across the page then putting down the powder and embossing.

It seems to me that someone along my stamping travels told me to keep my hands washed because the oils from them can cause embossing powder to stick in unwanted places. Not only do I do that, but I also handle my cardstock by the edges when I'm dealing with embossing powder. And I thump the back of the cardstock prior to heating the embossing powder. This technique seems to work rather well for me. I've never had or used an embossing buddy because it's one more thing that I don't want to have to deal with or spend money on.

Hey, great video! Thank you, Debra! I'm a visual learner, so seeing someone actually doing a task is the best way for me to learn. I noticed the lady in the video used powdered white clay for her homemade embossing buddy, which is a new one on me. (I use a 50/50% blend of talcum powder and cornstarch which works very nicely.) ~Sherrie